Session one: notes and updates

Our Student Focus Groups give you, our students, the opportunity to shape the future of the Careers & Employability Service

Student Focus Group session one: social media

Notes and recommendations

Session 1.1 Tuesday 11 October 2016, 16.30 – 18.30 (11 students)

Session 1.2 Wednesday 19 October 2016, 16.30 – 18.30 (12 students)

Tabled questions and topics

How can we improve our social media engagement with students?

What should our use of social media achieve as a service?

What should our content look and feel like?

Key strong messages

1. More visual images on all pages and platforms, less generic text.

2. More ‘approachable’ content, such as humour, images and student stories.

3. More personalisation through interaction with subject specific social media platforms, content specific to the outcomes of students (students getting jobs, placement outcomes and ‘good news’). Answer and engage with students through both Twitter and Facebook.

4. More incentive to like, share and comment through partnerships with local businesses and UPSU (money off vouchers).

5. 90 per cent in session one think we should merge all our social media pages across the service and approximately 60 per cent in session two.

6. Facebook is the most used and most popular platform for user interaction and information.

6. Utilise societies to get students/peers that can share their experiences (and how their extra-curricular activity has helped in their career). Peers organising tailored events more likely to be attended - students helping with social media, bigger following.

Find ways to engage to prospective students early on with the service.

Snapchat could be used for stories on the day of events so that a student could follow an event, particularly if they could not make it to the event. Opinion on the use of Snapchat was split – some seeing the value of using it for events, interaction and visual content – others feeling it would not gain enough interest.

Additional comments

Being redirected to another website for registration is not convenient.

If your careers advisor had a professional social media account would you use it to ask questions? Would it be different to the general Careers & Employability one? Yes - can ask quick questions (easier than an email).